Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Mad Men ends its fifth season (Episodes 11-13)

Ladies
and germs, this was our favorite season of Mad Men. Maybe it was that I could
finally root for Don Draper since he didn’t spend the season philandering and
ruining his own life. Maybe it was the dramatic exits. Maybe it was the LSD.
Maybe it was the accessible pacing. Maybe it was the humor. Maybe it was the
90s guest stars, including Nickelodeon’s Alex Mack and the WB’s Rory Gilmore. Maybe
it was Betty’s fat suit and Sally’s whorish boots. A safe bet is that it was
Megan Draper. Or Pete getting punched in the nose. We really can’t decide. This
season was fun, deep, and full of great episodes. It's amazing that this was the show Ern once called "soulless." There was a time when we couldn't get through the first season. It took ten episodes to hook us. If season one were anything like season five, it would have taken one hour.

The
last three episodes included arguably one if the best episodes of the entire
series, "The Other Woman". The theme of “owning/objectification of women” was
inspired and well-executed. Having Peggy walk out on Don after he humiliated her
was genius and heartbreaking. Their awkward goodbye (that kiss!) was gripping and her smile
as she walked onto the elevator, upbeat music starting, healed the wound a little.
And then Joan, oh Joan, sleeping with the nasty Jaguar guy… The victory in
getting the account was bittersweet (mostly bitter). Actually, it was gross.
Don acted like a full human being there, and it was so sad that he didn’t get
to Joan before she went through with it. We understand that she wanted to
protect and provide for her son. On the bright side, we love Joan as a partner.
Not silent. It's hard not to want Don with either Peggy or Joan in the end, even though it would be cliche.

Pete
is such a worm, especially when he put the business before Joan’s well being.
That’s the definition of greed, according to Ern’s dad: putting money before
people. But we really liked the way Pete got into a fight with Rory Gilmore’s
husband on the train. That guy is even more of a pig than Pete is and totally
deserved it. Maybe that’s why he bothered Pete so much; he’s a future Pete and
a mirror. Trudy is gorgeous and if Pete thinks another beautiful woman will
make him feel alive, attractive, and happy again, he’s going to stay miserable
and pathetic.

Lane’s
death was a shocking, grisly moment for the series and we really felt for him
in his depression. We aren’t fully sure yet of the repercussions the suicide
will have on Don. We’re sure he feels a little lost and responsible. Don acted
perfectly toward Lane. It seems like Don’s honor in business is back. That’s
one thing we’ve missed about Don Draper during the Megan year: his business
mojo and class.

We
didn’t like the finale as much as the two episodes that preceded it. It left us
with a bad taste in our mouths. It was so morose and repetitive of the season
at large. It didn’t leave us with anything new, in other words. It hinted that
the show is going to replay the old Don cheating thing and his Dick Whitman
issues. Blah blah blah. This season moved things forward for the show and had
Don facing old age. Are they going to go back to his mid-life crisis? The finale
was too cold and ordinary, but it was still pretty good and it was very Mad
Men. It just felt too low-key after the episodes that preceded it.

The
Don/Megan drama now centers completely on her acting career. Megan isn’t going
to sit home barefoot and pregnant, but she’s having trouble breaking into the
business. Don would rather her go back to creating brilliant advertisements at
the firm, but he is forced to back her endeavors up. We were cheered by his
eventual casting of Megan in the commercial she wanted, but we are wary that
Don might go back to his old ways after the last shot of the season. We really
hope he doesn’t. While we would love to see Megan’s freak-out when she catches
Don, we really aren’t into cheating or storylines about cheating. It always
really bums us out. We will understand if it happens though. It’s true to the
character and it would be interesting to see it all play out.

5 comments:

Interesting. We said in a previous post that if a person didn't like Megan, they were probably hating this season. Since we loved her...well. We can't think of anything that was badly written, even though there were some unnecessary plotlines (the Hare Krishna stuff and possibly the Beth stuff). We welcome differing opinions though. You're right that it was all Megan all the time.

Agree. We think part of it was setting up some women's lib stuff (with Peggy and Megan) where Don is one day going to get that women have some power and can be whatever they want to be. Peggy's going to make it big. We like that this show has an end in mind (that's what the creator said) and it's just going to build to that.

About the bloggers

Ern is a lawyer. Ern's all-time favorite shows are LOST and Breaking Bad. Other favorites include Homeland and South Park. She also enjoys opera, water skiing, arguing, and movies. Ern responds to most of the comments, because they go directly to her phone. Ern also starts most of the posts and leaves them half done, as drafts, for Leeard to finish. As far as international visitors go, Ern is excited to see visitors from Germany, the UK, and Israel.

Leeard is a technology consultant and a nice Italian Catholic girl. Leeard's all-time favorite show is Gilmore Girls, but her favorite shows on right now are Game of Thrones, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries. Leeard can do your taxes, loves sports, and has an insane amount of pop culture knowledge. Leeard is excited to see visitors from Russia and Poland because she speaks conversational Russian and Polish (and Spanish).

We started this blog because of our insane addictions to TV. We thought that, while we were "wasting our lives," we would at least get writing and thinking practice out of it.